At the Movies: `Red Planet’

By 2050, the overpopulated Earth has been depleted of its resources. The atmosphere is poisoned and slowly dying. Even the frogs are extinct. The solution: find a potentially hospitable planet for colonization. Hence, the Mars Terraforming Project, which has strewn algae over a stretch of Mars in an effort to create enough oxygen to sustain human life. The mechanism for transmitting data on the experiment has failed, and a manned spaceship, commanded by Carrie-Anne Moss, has been launched to investigate. This is the premise of “Red Planet,” a mildly diverting adventure film for those who enjoy thrills and shocks without having to think too much.